The shareholders of one of northeast Ohio’s oldest companies have voted to split it into two. At this morning’s annual meeting, more than 53 percent of the shares of the Timken Co. went in favor of spinning off the steel operation from the bearings business.

The break up was pushed by California teachers’ pension fund and a group called Relational Investors. They argued that the stock value of the combined company is too low, and that the steel part of the business has outgrown the bearings’. Company management and the United Steelworkers opposed the split.

The vote is legally nonbinding, but Timken CEO James Griffith says the board will decide what it needs to do next within 45 days.